An NGO is planning to open a school in Beijing specifically for Chinese children adopted by foreign families to provide training and help them to find better jobs in China.

The Chinese mainland officially opened its doors to international adoption in 1991. Since then, 90,000 families from 17 countries and regions, including 70,000 from the United States, have adopted 120,000 children.

Although most get a good education and affection from their adoptive parents, they always wonder why their biological parents abandoned them, said Edwin Huang, organizer of Angels Alliance Foundation, an NGO based in Hong Kong.

The foundation has already carried out short-term training programs and has run trips for adopted children to visit China to gain a better understanding of the country.

"Yet visits can only help them know China on the surface, which is not enough," Huang said. "Part of our purpose in setting up training schools is to teach them Chinese culture and the Chinese way of thinking."

After gaining more insight into Chinese culture, children shed their doubts about China and their biological parents, leading to healthier and happier lives, he said.

The schools will also have more important functions: to help adopted Chinese find jobs and teach them skills to achieve success in China. As the adopted children grow up, like their peers all over the world, most of them face the problem of job hunting.

During the process of finding a job, they will be more inclined than their competitors to seek careers in China because of the biological connection and, more importantly, because China's fast-developing economy can provide many opportunities.

Growing up in foreign counties, adopted Chinese children know the social and cultural conditions there. They are the sorts of employees Chinese enterprises doing international business need.

To provide more help and support to young adopted Chinese children who want to find a job in China, Angels Alliance Foundation is to set up training schools in Beijing and Hong Kong.

Huang describes himself as a warm-hearted social worker, and at present he is making efforts to communicate with the government to get financial support from Chinese enterprises to help to set up the school as soon as possible.

"In America, job hunting is not that easy for young people who have just graduated from universities," Huang said.

"To give adopted Chinese children the opportunity to find a job in China will benefit them."

China Daily

(China Daily 05/23/2011 page28)